


Carry On

by rayrae118



Series: Whatever it Takes [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Family Feels, Flashbacks, Happily Ever After, Heaven, Reunions, Some of these people are just there, Team as Family, more like memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 08:34:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayrae118/pseuds/rayrae118
Summary: Clint finally joins the ghostly family.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Steve Rogers, Clint Barton/Laura Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes/Maria Hill, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Whatever it Takes [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1393615
Kudos: 24





	Carry On

_Clint looked up at the sound of gleeful laughter that echoed through the just opened front door. He would never get tired of seeing Steve in the role of super nanny. In between chopping firewood and lending a helping hand with the various repairs that seemed to be a never-ending cycle with home ownership, the only thing those heavily muscled arms were used for on this farm was to provide endless entertainment for Clint's three kids._

_It was Nate right now who was the focus of Steve's attention. Clint had to hold in a laugh as he watched the super soldier enter through the screen door, one arm easily holding the two-year-old upside down by his knees. Nate's hair had flopped down to cover his eyes, and the archer made a mental note to have Laura take the kid in for a haircut soon._

_Nate was giggling uncontrollably, and Steve's face was completely relaxed and open, taking honest joy in the amusement of the child._

"_I thought you and Lila were doing target practice," Clint commented, raising an eyebrow in silent question._

_Steve glanced up and shrugged. "I don't care how much you try and promote it, Clint, a bow just isn't a weapon I will ever be proficient in."_

_Clint laughed. "Hey, it's not for everyone. Lila was really thrilled you asked her to teach you though."_

_Steve smiled softly. "She's really good with that thing. You can definitely tell she's your daughter." He looked down at the child in his arms. "This guy though, he's definitely more Laura." Steve used his free hand to tickle Nate's stomach, and the kid let out another burst of laughter._

"_Yeah?"_

_Steve nodded. "He doesn't need any weapons – that glare will do it all for him."_

_Clint snorted. His wife did have a deadly glare._

_Steve glanced down at the kid in his arms. "Speaking of, your mom said it's almost time for bed. Bath first?"_

"_I can do that," Clint reached out, but Nate squirmed away._

"_Unca Seev!" he protested._

_Steve shifted, pulling Nate upright. "Well all right then. Come on kiddo, let's get you cleaned up."_

"_Are you sure?" Clint asked. Steve had stayed with them a few times since the split over the Accords, but the extent of his visits usually boiled down to entertaining the kids for a few hours, beers on the porch, and usually gone before dawn with barely a good bye, just a promise to stay safe and pass along any messages to Natasha if she hadn't joined him for the visit._

_Steve nodded surely. "It's no problem. Come on little man."_

"_Not little!" Clint could hear Nate protest as he watched Steve carry his youngest son up the stairs._

The scene blurred and shifted. Laura was walking towards him, beaming radiantly as she clasped a bouquet of lilies and roses in her perfectly manicured hands. Her long white dress fluttered around her ankles as she moved down the aisle. Clint frowned, and shook his head to clear it.

_The retired superhero glanced down at the beer bottle in his hand, feeling the condensation gather as the cold bottle met the warm summer air._

"_Nate's asleep," Steve joined him on the porch, setting his own nearly empty bottle on the railing as he took in the setting sun bathing the fields in orange light._

_Clint nodded. "Thanks for being here today, man. It means a lot that you guys came."_

_Natasha and Sam were still inside, Sam helping Laura with the dishes while Natasha, Cooper, and Lila were in the middle of an intense game of Go Fish._

_Steve smiled. "We wouldn't miss Nate's birthday for anything, Clint. I can't believe he's three."_

_Clint shook his head, bewildered. "Me either. Seems like we just brought him home from the hospital. What the hell happened to the last three years?" He grimaced. "On the other hand, so much has happened that sometimes I wonder how it's only been three years."_

"_I know what you mean," Steve sighed, picking up his beer bottle and twirling it around in his hands. "Sometimes it amazes me that it's been less than a decade since I woke up from the ice. I feel like it's been a lifetime."_

"_Do you ever miss it? Your life back then?" Clint asked curiously. He and Steve were friends, but he would never have called them best friends, before his retirement from the Avengers. When Steve had asked him to help with the whole Accords mess, Clint had agreed because he didn't believe in what the Accords were trying to do. Sure, he was happy to help his friend, but he would have joined the cause even if the person asking had been a stranger._

_So as casual friends, they had never really had any deep conversations about anything personal._

_Steve took a few minutes to consider Clint's question, as the sun dipped lower and stars began to appear. One of the things Steve liked the most about Clint's farm was the lack of light pollution. He could never see this many stars from his apartment in Brooklyn – in either century._

_Finally, the super soldier sighed heavily. "All the time," he admitted quietly. He wouldn't look Clint in the eye. "I miss the old Brooklyn. I mean, almost starving to death or nearly dying from asthma attacks every other day wasn't exactly fun, but things were simpler back then. I didn't have to be a superhero, people didn't expect me to be anything other than myself."_

_Clint winced sympathetically. Before his retirement he had seen how the world placed such pressure on the hero Captain America. They expected him to stand tall and proud and support his country. They expected him to never falter, to never make any mistakes. They expected him to be a hero, not a human. Steve bore it with such grace that Clint had almost missed the stress it put on the man. And then helicarriers were falling from the sky and SHIELD was suddenly and abruptly disbanded._

_Steve grimaced. "I miss my friends. Even Howard." He chuckled humorlessly. "Tony and I knew two very different versions of the man. I don't even recognize the guy Tony said he turned into. But I miss the Commandoes." He looked at Clint. "Don't get me wrong, I made some great friends here. I just…" he trailed off, not really sure how to describe the difference between his old unit and the Avengers._

_Clint nodded agreeably. He understood._

_They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, before Steve let out a long breath of air and shook himself off. "I left the shield behind in Siberia, and it just felt… freeing. I might be public enemy number one, but at least I don't have to be their hero anymore."  
_

_Clint nodded again. "They turned you into an icon and forced their ideals on you, Steve. I get it."_

_Steve shook his head. "The Captain America they pulled out of the ice isn't the same one that went into it. I was a different kind of hero in the war. People didn't expect me to be… more than human. I mean, the USO tour wasn't exactly fun, but once I got to the front line…" he sighed. "They expected me to do my job and protect my men. And if I was harder to injure and more likely to take out the enemy with minimal casualties to our side, so much the better. I woke up almost seventy years later with a backstory I certainly don't remember and a country that raised me up as practically godlike. I never wanted to be a god." He leaned against the porch railing and sighed. "I just wanted to help."_

_Clint ached for the rawness in the other man's voice. He could feel the pain and disappointment in a country that always seemed to want something from him but never gave anything in return. "I'm sorry," he offered, not really knowing what else to say. "But if it means anything, I'm really glad I got to know you."_

_Steve looked up and smiled. It was small but genuine, and made the retired hero feel better. "Clint, you and your family are some of the best things about this century. There are things I miss – a lot of things – but that doesn't mean there aren't good things here too. You, Laura, Lila, Cooper, and Nate… Sam and Natasha, Wanda, even Tony, and Thor and Bruce wherever they are, you're all family. For so long it was just me and Bucky, and then Peggy and the Commandoes, and then I wake up and they're all gone. But then I met you guys, all of you, and suddenly I wasn't alone anymore. I'm honored beyond belief that you trusted us to know about your family, Clint, and I know how much you've risked by letting us stay here."_

_Clint smirked. "Playing it safe was never my strong suit. You're family, Steve. You're always welcome."_

The farmhouse flickered.

_It was just another generic coffee house in New York during a three day leave before he had to return to the SHIELD Academy of Operations to continue with his training. He had thrown himself into SHIELD training full force since he had unwittingly helped that James Bond wannabe shut down a terrorist ring operating out of the circus he had joined up with after running away from home as a kid. Apparently James Bond, and the shadowy organization he belonged to, had been somewhat impressed with his marksmanship – and his choice of weapon – and had offered him a chance to do something more with those skills. He was determined not to squander this opportunity, which meant that even when the Academy was on break, he could generally still be found on campus, continuing to develop and hone his skills (not like he really had anywhere else to go, anyway)._

_This was the first time he had left campus since he joined almost a year ago. Clint was on a one-track mission to get his coffee and go, determined to make as much out of his three days as possible before he needed to return to campus, when raised voices drew his attention away from the counter._

_A young woman was standing over a hunched figure – a man, it looked like, late twenties. He was clutching his cheek as he glared angrily up at the woman._

_She was shaking her hand roughly, and her own glare was ten times fiercer than what she was being given._

_Clint was moving closer before he even thought about it. "I think that's your cue to leave buddy," he said lightly. The stranger looked like he wanted to argue, but he took one look at Clint's well-muscled body, and stalked off without another word._

_Clint looked back at the woman, who had transferred her glare to him. "I don't need a white knight," she growled._

_Clint shrugged easily. "My armor's being polished so I'm off duty," he shot back with a small smirk._

_The woman blinked, startled._

_Clint glanced at her hand which she seemed to be favoring still. "I can show you how to do that without hurting yourself, if you want."_

_The woman tilted her head to the side, considering. After a moment of silence, she grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "Fine, but if you drive a windowless van I'm screaming."_

_Clint grinned. "You're in luck. I don't own a car. I'm Clint, by the way."_

_The woman responded with a smile of her own and let him push the door open, allowing her to exit first._

"_Laura."_

Clint frowned. A busy hospital, a rainy night. A doctor placing a baby in his shaking arms, Laura beaming up at him from the hospital bed. A girl. _His girl._

The walls around him flickered. The baby in his arms disappeared, and Clint looked down, confused.

"_I'm never going to learn this."_

_The childish whine drew Clint's attention from his position by the stove in the kitchen to the dining room table, where Steve and Lila had dug in, working on the thirteen-year-old's math homework._

"_Of course you will," Steve promised patiently. Clint stopped in the doorway and watched. He loved when Steve came to visit because he loved seeing how easily the superhero adapted to helpful uncle._

"_It's all angles and shapes and congruence, and it's just so confusing."_

_Clint could see Steve's smile even though he only had a partial view of the man's face. "I know it's confusing now, Lila, but you do need to learn this stuff."_

"_But why?" Lila asked, frustrated, tossing her pencil aside. "It's not like I'm ever going to use it in real life."_

_Steve frowned slightly and leaned forward. "Lila, how do you think my shield worked?"_

_Lila tilted her head to one side. "I mean, you throw it around and take out bad guys."_

_Steve sighed. "Lila, the shield was just a piece of round metal. It's got no inherent qualities in it other than being the strongest metal on earth. It's not a boomerang. When I threw that shield, I calculated trajectories so that it would hit its target and come back to me. You know what that involved? Angles. Force of impact. Being able to calculate exactly what angle and how strong to throw the shield to take out a target and have it come back to me. I know it's hard to imagine the real-life implementations of what you learn in school sometimes, but believe me, this stuff matters. I used geometry and physics every time I picked up the shield."_

"_Well we can't all be super soldiers like you," Lila grinned._

_Steve rolled his eyes. "Your dad uses math to shoot a bow and arrow accurately. Measuring the wind, weight of the arrow, distance to the target. There's plenty of real-world applications for the stuff you learn in the classroom."_

"_So, if I learn this stuff maybe I could shoot as well as dad?"_

_Steve grinned at the hopeful tone of her voice. "You'll never know if you don't try."_

_Lila determinedly picked up her pencil and got back to work._

The scene flickered again, and from the doorway, Clint narrowed his gaze. This felt… familiar. Had this happened before?

Steve and Lila were bent over the eighth grader's worksheet determinedly working their way through the math problems, but something seemed… off. Why did they seem transparent all of a sudden?

Another flicker, and Clint's confusion grew. For a moment, he thought he could see a much younger Lila and Cooper running through the house. Laura was sitting on the couch, but then she wasn't.

Clint shook his head to clear it, and then stiffened as with one more flicker, Steve and Lila faded from existence completely. "What the –"

He looked around in confusion, and then frowned at a door he definitely didn't recognize. Most of the doors in the house were worn, but this one looked… newer. It was a bright blue that seemed to draw him in, and before he even thought about what he was doing, he was opened it.

Soft music greeted him as he opened the door to a completely different scene. He remembered driving Laura nuts over the years with all his home improvement projects born out of boredom, but he certainly didn't remember ever opening up a bar in his living room.

Clint stepped through, and then watched in confusion as the door melted back into the wall behind him. "What the fuck?"

With no clear exit anymore, he turned back to the room in front of him, hoping to find some answers.

It was crowded, but not completely full inside the bar. Or was it a pub? About three quarters of the tables had people sitting at them, and no one paid him any attention as he took a few steps forward.

Taking in the scene around him, Clint saw groups varying from two to six or seven, most with some form of drink in front of them. He didn't see any food. So, more a bar then. But who were all these people and where was his house?

"Clint?"

Clint spun around so quickly he would have fallen over if he wasn't a superhero with better than average reflexes. His eyes widened. "Nat?"

Natasha grinned, lighting up her face in a way Clint had really only ever seen when she was around his kids. "I'm glad you found your way here." She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. Clint wrapped his arms around her slim waist and returned the gesture just as desperately.

"I missed you," he whispered in her ear.

Natasha pulled back after a few moments, eyebrow arching worriedly. "You're not mad?"

Clint rolled his eyes. "I was pissed," he admitted. "But it's been decades, and I always understood why you felt you had to do it."

Natasha smiled softly. "I needed you to go home to your family, Clint. Whatever else, you had to see them again."

Clint sighed, understanding her reasoning even when he had hated her choice, and decided not to drag this conversation out any further. Instead, he looked around at the bar, frowning. "So you wanna explain where exactly here is?"

Natasha shrugged and began leading him towards the far corner. "Meeting place." Clint listened as she began to explain the basics of where they were and why they used the bar.

By the time they reached an out of the way table, Clint felt he was at least mostly caught up. He had known that something was off as soon as he started to recognize some of the scenes he found himself playing a part in, but it was nice to get the whole run down.

Approaching the table Natasha was leading him towards, Clint started as he realized he recognized some of the people there. One side of the table was strangers, but he could clearly see Maria, Bucky, Pepper, and Tony as well. All four looked up at their arrival, and smiled greetings.

"You know, I honestly never thought I'd be the one to outlive you all," Clint smirked, taking an empty seat next to Tony. Natasha sat down on his other side.

Tony reached out and clasped his shoulder lightly. Pepper smiled broadly in his direction. They had gotten very close over the years, one of the results of having their kids become best friends, significant others, and then husband and wife with a family of their own and grandkids that all the grandparents couldn't get enough of. It was a lot easier to navigate holidays with the in-laws when you generally spent all of them together anyway.

"True," Natasha agreed. "Honestly there were some days I was surprised you outlasted me. You've got no sense of self preservation." She glanced over at Tony. "Where are the others? I thought they'd be here by now."

Tony rolled his eyes. "You've been with them a hell of a lot longer than me. You honestly need me to answer that?"

Natasha shrugged. "Fair point."

Clint looked around the table in confusion. "Someone wanna fill me in?"

Tony rolled his eyes while Bucky smirked and Maria ignored him. The strangers – there were four of them – all grinned into their glasses.

Natasha shook her head exasperatedly. "Clint, this is Dugan, Morita, Angie, and Gabe." Each person nodded as they were introduced, and Dugan raised his glass in greeting. Clint jerked a hand in response, and then turned back to Natasha expectantly. Natasha sighed. "Steve," she said by way of explanation.

Clint blinked, startled. "Steve's here?"

"Of course," Tony cut in. "You thought he was headed to the other place or something?"

"Hadn't really thought about it," Clint shrugged, but he was definitely more interested than the casual exterior he portrayed. It had been way too long.

Bucky snorted. "Idiot would never go anywhere else. He'll be here once he and Peggy realize we all left without them."

"Wait…" Clint sat forward, interested. "Peggy. Like, Peggy Carter Peggy?"

"This is heaven, Clint," Natasha shoved him lightly. "It's not like time has any meaning here. And apparently, death cannot stop true love."

"All it can do is delay it for a little while?" Tony snorted into his glass. "Please tell me you have a copy of Princess Bride in the media library. That one's a classic."

Natasha smiled. "We got to that one ages ago, Tony. The irony was not missed by any of us."

Clint chuckled and picked up the glass of beer in front of him. Just a few minutes ago he had been reliving some of the best moments of his life, so he really hadn't had much time to consider the logistics of heaven, but he was definitely looking forward to seeing the super soldier again. He had lived so long with Steve gone, but the memories of him had brought the old feelings of loss to the forefront, and suddenly he really needed to see the man.

"You know you really could have waited."

Speak of the devil. Clint spun in his seat to see Steve dropping down into an empty chair next to Tony, a dark haired woman about the same age – not that age had any meaning in heaven, apparently (they all looked permanently frozen in their late twenties/early thirties, which could only be a blessing considering the long list of ailments Clint had thankfully left behind in death) – settling easily on his other side.

"You knew when we were leaving, not our fault you were too wrapped up in each other to notice anything around you," Bucky rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer.

Steve huffed, but let it go when Peggy threaded her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. Several of the table's occupants threw fond or amused smiles in their direction, but Steve ignored them in favor of focusing on the beer that had appeared in front of him – courtesy of the nameless bartender who had been serving their group so long now that he had all their favorite drinks memorized.

He took a sip and his eyes automatically lifted up to survey the group, seeing who had joined them today.

And then he nearly choked on the drink – a real feat considering he was dead and couldn't actually choke on anything. "Clint?"

The archer grinned and waved. "Took you long enough."

Steve set his drink down and stood up quickly. Clint followed, and the two embraced. Clint hoped his hug didn't look as needy as it felt, but it had been a really long time since he had seen the man. Sure he had missed Tony, Pepper, Bucky, and Maria, but it had been decades since he and the super soldier had spoken.

And he hadn't ever even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

"You're an idiot," he whispered softly, still maintaining the firm embrace.

He felt more than saw Steve's smile. He could tell that the man understood Clint's feelings just fine by the way his hug got just a little bit tighter.

When they pulled apart a long moment later – just shy of the hug becoming awkward – Clint was embarrassed to realize that he was on the verge of crying.

Steve smiled wryly. "If it makes you feel any better, Bucky punched me?"

Clint snorted. "It kind of does," he admitted, amused.

Tony looked up at that. "What is it with you people and that kind of greeting?" he asked curiously. "You and my dad, you and Bucky, you do know there are other ways to greet people, right?"

Steve shrugged as he sat back down. Clint followed his movement, returning to his seat between Tony and Natasha and throwing his old partner a questioning look.

"It's a long story," she murmured, the only one paying attention to their conversation who had actually witnessed the altercation so many years earlier. On the other side of the table, the Commandoes and Angie – one of Peggy's friends from her SHIELD days – had disappeared into their own conversation once they had greeted Steve and Peggy (something about the amount of gas you would need to drive a car to the moon, if Clint actually heard what he thought he had). He raised an eyebrow in Natasha's direction, and on her eye roll, decided he was better off not knowing.

It was nice though. Comforting. Even if he had just met half the table a few minutes ago, it was amazing to be surrounded by his friends once more. Sure, there were people missing. He doubted they'd ever see Thor up here – and that brought an offhanded thought on where Asgardians went when they died, if there was a separate heaven for them or if they had their own floor up here? Bruce was still alive and kicking last time he had checked, and of course Laura was no doubt burying herself in spending time with the grandkids and planning exactly what kind of retribution she'd seek when she got up here herself, for him dying on her like that. He missed his kids. He missed his grandkids. All the friends that had become like family over the decades. Some of them, if he was lucky, he may eventually meet again someday – if they woke up from the memories. Natasha had made it clear that that wasn't the norm. Apparently, they were all anomalies. Cool.

His heart thudded painfully at the thought that even after Laura died he may never see her again, but he had to hold onto the belief that she, like the rest of them, wouldn't be swayed by the collection of 'greatest hits' heaven threw at her. After all, how could a mere memory of him ever compare to the awesomeness that was the real thing?

A sharp elbow impacted his ribs, and even though he was dead and shouldn't feel pain, Clint still winced. He glanced over and raised an eyebrow at Natasha.

The former superhero retracted her arm and gave him a look that told him quite clearly that she knew exactly what he had been thinking.

Even with the phantom pain in his ribs, Clint couldn't stop his grin. He had missed his partner.

And then Steve looked over at the two of them, a soft smile on his face as he watched them interact, and Clint finally felt like his world was coming together.

He had lived a good, long life, full of friends, family, and happy moments. There had been pain too, of course – losing Natasha and Steve so close to each other and with so little warning had been hard. Explaining to his kids why Uncle Steve and Auntie Nat were never going to come around again had been even harder.

But they had survived. It hadn't always been easy, but they had _lived_. And in those moments when Clint felt like the loss was overwhelming and he didn't know how to go on, he had consoled himself with thinking of Morgan and Nate. His grandkids. Tony, alive and happily sharing grandfather duties. It was everything Steve had wanted, even if he couldn't be around to see it happen.

It seemed too good to be true that he could have so many good things, die, and then finally be reunited with the final two members of his family.

But there didn't seem to be a catch here, and Clint wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

(Ok, that was a total lie, he was definitely someone who looked a gift horse in the mouth and then probably took it apart piece by piece to find whatever hidden catches the giver had tried to slip passed him. And even if his search came up empty, he probably wouldn't believe it. But god damn it this was heaven and Clint might not be religious but heaven couldn't be so cruel as to give him two of the most important people in his life back only to take them away again, right?)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did ok with these reunions. There's not a lot of interaction between Steve and Clint, and I wanted to flesh it out a little.


End file.
